Meet the Ducati 959 Panigale In the Flesh

We knew that the 959 Panigale was coming, and we were sort of expecting to see spy photos of the bike way ahead of the official unveiling in Milan, on the 16th of November. The 959 builds on the existing 899 Panigale platform, but comes with several design upgrades.

It does not surprise us that the 959 Panigale looks almost identical to the 899 machine, but the small changes Ducati made add a dash of big-bike vibe that we like quite a lot.

It looks as if Ducati used the bodywork of the 1299 Panigale and installed a different front cowl. The air scoops are bigger on the 969 than on the 899, most likely because they have to feed a bigger engine in the first place.

Is the 899 still more aggressive than the 959?

Under the bike’s nose, the lateral fairings are now joined, whereas the 899 had them separated. We are still looking at both designs now, but we tend to believe that the 899 looks a bit more aggressive.

The lower part of the fairing shows a small piece of the engine case and the Ducati badge can be easily seen through the gap, a detail that the 899 is missing.

Ducati 959 Panigale retains a traditional, double-sided swingarm, possible the same as the 899. We hoped that Bologna would adopt the single-sided solution of the bigger bikes, and seeing it unchanged hints about the price concerns that may have played a role in this.

The mirrors have twin stems on the 959 caught testing, as opposed to being solid on the 899. Other things, such as the wheels, brakes and exhausts seem to have been left untouched.

All in all, Ducati could have worked a bit on the aesthetics side and tweaked the fairings and the front cowl, but it looks like they launched the new model without having too much time to revise everything. We are now waiting for a glimpse of what’s underneath the plastic. By: autoevolution